GE invests in Carbon Sequestration proving ground

When it comes to reducing global carbon emissions, Carbon Capture and Sequestration is a thorny topic. On one hand, it has been widely acknowledged as a critical approach alongside a plethora of other schemes and technologies. But on the other, some see CCS as just putting the waste somewhere else, rather than reducing its production in the first place. Sweeping the carbon under the carpet, as it were.

Either way, most agree that CCS represents a necessary intermediate step in our transition to alternative energy, as it provides a way to scrub CO2 from the fossil fuels that still supply most of the world's electricity. The technology is yet to be proven on a large scale however, something which GE Oil and Gas are clearly hoping to change with a £240 million CCS plant in the Gorgon natural gas field, just off the West Australian coast.

The Gorgon natural gas field is expected to produce one trillion cubic feet of gas a year, the processing of which would normally expel 3.3 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually - the equivalent of 630,000 cars. GE will provide machinery known as compression trains to ensure the CO2 never makes it that far, but is instead injected into the nearby Dupuy saline formation, 2.5km below the seabed.

GE hopes to determine the safety and economic viability of Carbon Capture and Sequestration with this project, which is of far greater scale than any previous efforts. The largest is the Scwarze Pumpe in Germany which processes just 10,000 tons of CO2, compared to Gorgon's projected 3.3 million. However it will be some time before its success can be evaluated, as the compression trains will not be delivered until 2011 and it will be a number of years after that until meaningful results are available.

Nevertheless, this large-scale installation is an important proving ground for CCS, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimating that 10 to 50 per cent of emissions reductions could come from the technology.

The unanswered question that plagues CCS and nuclear waste disposal plants still remains, however: will the storage companies still be around in hundreds of years time, and if not, who will take responsibility for ensuring safe and effective long-term storage?